European Individual Chess Championship 2014 begins in Yerevan

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014

Hello everyone,

An impressive opening ceremony marked the start of the European Individual Chess Championship 2014, in Yerevan, on Sunday. The first round games begin on Monday and you can watch live on the official website.

Yerevan, the Armenian capital, is hosting the tournament from March 3 to March 14. The first round kicks off at 15:00 local time (12:00 in CET, 6:00 AM EST). French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot is top seed among 15 2700+ players, 72 2600+ and a total of 123 Grandmasters. 

 

The opening ceremony took place at the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The president of the Republic of Armenia, who is also the president of the Armenian Chess Federation, Serzh Sargsyan, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of the European Chess Union Silvio Danailov, a number of state officials, and a large number of chess fans attended the ceremony along with the players. 

The cultural program started with the performance of the Brass Band, after which a video dedicated to 9th World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosian was presented. 

 

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